Part THREE

Under the high jump bar at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.


At the Chateau du Grandson


Ready to storm the castle!


After the "wall walk" where the sign warned, "Keep moving and avoid forming groups!" Just how stable is this old castle anyway?!?


The Centre Thermal mineral steam baths


Before heading up to the 12,602 foot observation deck at Mont Blanc!


The breathtaking view from the top!


The "little" town of Chamonix, France from the top of the mountain!


Dinner in Aosta, Italy. "Grazi!"

Chapter III: Kevin & Pat meet us in Switzerland

We were so excited to have our first guests in Switzerland! Pat & Kevin arrived on Tuesday, Dec. 27th and after relaxing a little we were off to do a little sightseeing! It's no secret that Geneva isn't the most exciting city in Europe, especially in winter. I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough to see or do, but it turns out that we ended up not having enough time to get everything in! I learned a lot about the surrounding area during their visit (and all the great things there are to do here!) I'm looking forward to exploring more and more of this great area and discovering all the wonderful things it has to offer.

We started off in the neighboring town of Lausanne which sits on the Northern shore of Lake Geneva where we ate "exotic" pizza and visited the Olympic Museum in a part of town called "Ouchy". The next day we wanted to venture a little farther, so we figured it would be a good idea to rent a car. Well, I guess a lot of other people thought the same thing, because every car rental desk at the airport was out of cars!!! We went from desk to desk and we almost gave up, but at the last desk the girl said she had one car left! We took it. Lesson learned: Book cars in Geneva in advance! Who knew it was so popular here. ;)

The next day, with our new set of wheels, we headed north to the town of Yverdon-les-Bains which is home of the 14,000 year old mineral hot springs that the Romans discovered and has been in use ever since. We first stopped off at the 13th century Grandson Castle which is a little further north. We figured that the hot baths would be that much nicer after a visit to a cold castle. The castle itself was great, except for the 20 minute movie, which we all fell asleep in!

The baths were fantastic! They are in a place called Centre Thermal, and for 25 CHF (that's ~$20 USD) you get complete access to all 5 warm-hot pools (three outdoor) and several dry & hot steam rooms. The outdoor pools are heated naturally from the earth. They are very warm, but they would be nicer if they were about 5 degrees warmer. The fact that we were even outside in swimsuits this time of year is amazing to me (the metal hand rails outside to pool had ice on them!) The second outdoor pool even had a current! We never did figure out how it was created, but it was pretty cool. After much searching, we finally found the real hot tub and the steam rooms. There was even a room called "inhalations", so of course we had to go in. It was a hot, steamy, eucalyptus scented room. Very nice. We were there for hours and very relaxed when we finally headed home.

The next day was our "trifecta" day. We had breakfast in Switzerland, lunch in France and dinner in Italy. Unfortunately, Gary had to work, so it was just me, Pat & Kevin. We headed out to the ski town of Chamonix, France which lies at the base of the Mont Blanc Mountain in the heart of the French Alps. We braved the almost vertical cable car (like a big gondola that holds about 75 people) ride to the observation deck at 12,602 feet above sea level. The ride was a bit scary, since at one point our car seemed to stall out and go backwards for a bit, but soon enough we were on our way up once again. Nothing like a little excitement to get the old heart pumping! But it was all well worth it once we got to the top. The views from the top were breath taking! It was truly one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. You can see into France, Switzerland, and Italy! Even the cold didn't bother us (too much)... it was 30 below zero Celsius, but the cafe at the top had delicious soup to warm our bones. And does anyone know how to avoid altitude sickness (Pat has heard that ginger pills work well)? We had a slight bout of it, but not too bad, and certainly not anything to prevent me from going to the high Alps again! It was wonderful.

Back on the ground we had an afternoon coffee drink (we deserved it!) and hit the local casino (my first time gambling outside the US, unless you count Aruba) before heading out to Italy for dinner. The most direct way to Italy is through the five mile long Mont Blanc tunnel. It is long! We arrived in the town of Aosta and found a cute little restaurant in the wall of an old castle. Very cool. We each had the sea bass, which came whole, head and tail intact! The waitress (who spoke no English) though it was so funny that we had each carefully severed the heads and put them on a plate which we hid in the corner. "Decapitatia! hahaha" Since our Italian is extremely limited, we realized that our response to almost every question and comment was a very enthusiastic "Grazi! Grazi!" Silly Americans! :)

So, I could go into how I "misplaced" my wallet, which I though was "lost" at the parking garage in Chamonix, and how Kevin & Pat had a run in with the local police while they were circling around (and accidentally ended up driving in a pedestrian area) while I was trying to break into the garage (I was successful!), and how we befriended the local New Zealander bar owner who directed us back to the police station (where we again ran into the same rude French policeman), and how after a seeming defeat, on the way home we discovered the wallet right where I left it in the car! But, that isn't very interesting so I will skip it and bring you to our next chapter... on to Paris!